Termination of domain registrar MITSU INC by Nixi

[dnk]

Received the following message from Nixi

Dear Registrant / Customer,


This is to inform that the registrar account of your current registrar – Mitsu Inc. has been terminated by National Internet Exchange of India(NIXI) which manages the .IN Registry.


In view of the termination, your registrar will not be able to provide you any domain management services for .IN or .भारत (in all supported languages).


In order to protect your rights and commercial interests,.IN Registry hereby informs you to transfer your domain(s) to an alternate Accredited Registrar of .IN Registry of your choice. Please view the link below for the list of registrars - https://registry.in/Accredited_Registrars


You may contact your preferred new registrar on your own for transferring your domain(s) and follow the process as may be advised by the new registrar.


Meanwhile to maintain continuity, .IN Registry is taking over the control of your domain names and if you require any changes to your existing contact details or Nameserver associated with your domain name, you are requested to send an email from your registrant email id, as reflecting in whois records to [email protected].


While moving to a new registrar, you are requested to contact .IN Registry to obtain your domain authorization or “AUTH CODE” – which will be required by the new registrar to initiate transfer of your domain(s).


You are requested to complete the transfer process in the next 15 days from the date of this email. If not, .IN Registry will initiate its own process to transfer your domain to another registrar as may be determined by .IN Registry.

Sincerely yours,
National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI)


Has anyone else received this email, and knows what is the real reason for termination of Mitsu, as it is causing a lot of inconvenience

 

[vatsan]

Spoke to Sanjeev Goyal from Mitsu who confirmed this and he said a few of these .in domains have switched registrars without his or the customer's consent. He said these names would still appear in your account but you won't be able to make changes to it. He said you'd have to contact the registry and ask them to transfer it back to Mitsu for it to work again. I have a reseller account with Mitsu and about 50 domain names on it.

Sanjeev has filed a lawsuit against Nixi and is in touch with them. I will reach out to him later today and update you guys.

 

[Super Software]

Still plenty of false information being spread from a desperate source, trying to salvage pride. So for those who don't still understand the legal order -

1. NIXI won this hands down simply invoking terms of contract which calls for arbitration in case of any dispute
2. The petitioner just sunk approx USD 2000 trying to pick a fight without any merits in the wrong forum
3. Domain owners now have an opportunity to send in appeals to NIXI to be released from interim stay and migrate to a new registrar, you will be represented and heard in a month
4. The arbitration will occur in Delhi and costs will be involved (a investment the petitioner needs to make carefully in my view)
5. The Hon Bombay HC dismissed the petition - it was flawed in the first place given terms of the contract
6. The reasons for termination were not even visited - this petition died before even that stage - killed in it's admission stage

Any other version you here can only have been cooked up by a crook

 

[anantj]

There is no end result. @chandubaba simply stated that NIXI refused to transfer his domains out blaming it on the court decision.

NIXI is actually full of sh*t, because the court decision prohibits NIXI from terminating Mitsu.in's registrar accreditation but does not prohibit transferring domains out. In fact, NIXI is supposed to return all domains to Mitsu.in pending a further court decision, but of course they refuse to do so for their own corrupt reasons.

No. The court decision essentially states that the matter of Mitsu's accreditation must be resolved via arbitration. This decision was in response to the lawsuit filed by Mitsu's owners. There is no challenge to the domain names being held in the holding account operated by Nixi.

In fact, NIXI is supposed to return all domains to Mitsu.in pending a further court decision

Can you cite this decision or are you, in your own words, full of shit?

@Kenny To summarize this issue for you, Nixi (the .in registry) canceled the accreditation of 2 out of 5 (iirc) of Mitsu's registrars. The reason for the termination weren't explicitly stated but the validity of the same is is what is in question. Simultaneously with the termination, Nixi also moved all domains registered by the terminated registrars into a special holding account operated by Nixi. This also essentially blocked all registrants from being able to modify their domain settings and prevented renewals, transfers or deletions of the domains. The domains also will not expire while the issue runs its course.

Mitsu's owners sued Nixi in a court of law to halt this termination. On reviewing the lawsuit and filings by both the parties, the court vacated the lawsuit as per the operating agreement between Nixi and the registrars. The agreement contains a binding clause on arbitration to resolve all disputes between the registrar and the registry. This arbitration is, presumably, in progress. In the meantime, the domains are locked in the holding account.

I don't see where Nixi is in the wrong or where they were forced to return all domains to the registrar. I'm also not commenting on the validity of the termination as the reason for the same are unknown to the general public.

Disclaimer: This is my understanding of the case and ianal so some legal consideration might not be fully accurate. Please speak to a lawyer or if you have reach within Nixi, get first had information from them.

 

[blaal]

Because this domain nixi.in doesn't contain any SPF, lack of it...

Agreed.
Sponsoring registrar changed to "NIXI Holding Account (R189-AFIN)" instead of "Business Solutions (R54-AFIN)".
Personally verified all the .IN domains registered under Mitsu, only for few, the above whois data changed. If Mitsu is terminated, all the .IN domains under Mitsu must display "NIXI Holding Account (R189-AFIN)" as sponsoring registrar. Whos data changed between 24th Oct to 27th October. Hope this helps.

 

[Super Software]

I cannot comment on the specifics. However my perspective is posted on another forum (IN related) and you can view it there.

Unfortunately the weak governance framework and lack of stringent norms IMHO allowed an individual (who projected himself as a mega global corporation to me back in 2013) to secure multiple registrar accounts, which has been flagged as a severe risk in itself on multiple occasions.

Due to the enforcement action triggered only one main account was secured by the Registry, hence you see just over half of the 40K domains impacted as of now. Several transfer movements in the days leading to this event should also be under scutiny, apart from other nefarious acts of registrar(s) and there is possibly more to come.

 

[domainpundit]

If you want to follow the choronological updates on this one - you can refer this article with the additioanl details - http://our.in/mitsu-registar-account-termination-nixi-communication/

Mitsu.in is not stopping any of the customers tranferring names out , neither registry. Please do not attribute this issue to the whole .IN extension without not understanding the facts behind it.

What ever happened is clearly very unfortunate, i feel sorry for Mitsu.in ( a long standing .IN registars account is getting terminated). While the matter will be dealt legally, a dispute likely to be arbitrated by indian judiciary system.

its important to remmeber none of the .IN registrant will be loosing their names. .IN registry and Mitsu both are co-operating with their customers to ensure the impact is mitigated. In fact, i have spoken to Mr Sanjeev and as well as registry support too.. they both are very co-operative to mitigate the impact to end customers.. I have seen much worser situatons where the registrants names are got stuck for months with other extensions, even we have such examples in a matured extension like .COM too.

Lets be optimistic and hope the issue will be resolved amicably.

 

[domainpundit]

.in registry just locked all names that were previously registered at Mitsu (at the time they removed the accreditation, a few days back).

I mean that even the names that have been transferred out of Mitsu in the meantime (yesterday for instance), are now stuck.

Example:

Domain Name:MUMBAIRESTAURANTS.IN
Created On:19-Jan-2016 23:16:49 UTC
Last Updated On:06-Nov-2017 20:32:43 UTC
Expiration Date:19-Jan-2019 23:16:49 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:Dynadot LLC (R117-AFIN)
Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Reason:
Status:DELETE PROHIBITED
Reason:
Status:RENEW PROHIBITED
Reason:
Status:TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Reason:
Status:TRANSFERPERIOD

I sent an email to Nixi to request some clarifications. It seems to be a common practice of Nixi when legal situation need to be sorted out. Look at names hit by INDRP (fdc.in or nncc.in), they have similar statuses and never expire.

an update on this issue - please follow this article here - http://our.in/mitsu-account-termination-stay-order-highcourt/

 

[crunchyg]

My lawyers are suing NIXI in U.S. Federal District Court in New York to force the release of the domains. We believe NIXI is acting in bad faith by keeping these domains hostage while Mitsu.in's termination is pending. We didn't believe there was a way to resolve the dispute amicably and had to commence legal action.

If you have valuable domains illegally seized by NIXI, I advise you to do the same to save your assets.

 

[domainpundit]

My lawyers are suing NIXI in U.S. Federal District Court in New York to force the release of the domains. We believe NIXI is acting in bad faith by keeping these domains hostage while Mitsu.in's termination is pending. We didn't believe there was a way to resolve the dispute amicably and had to commence legal action.

If you have valuable domains illegally seized by NIXI, I advise you to do the same to save your assets.

I think you are reacting bit more than required, the fact is nixi not keeping anyones names. Stay order has been issued the mumbai high court. You sue where ever you want to sue , but i advise its waste of your time and money. As the NIXI's actions according to the Indian courts order.

The other hand i understand your frustration and i also an victim like you , High court has asked the NIXI to appoint an arbitration panel and the arbitration panel will focus on resolving the issue amicably. I am also not happy with the whole episode, my view is give a month or two , very likely the issue will be resolved amicably. In terms of our domains, i believe nothing will happen to them as we are not the party to any dispute , the dispute is between the registry and registar. End of the day , its your choice.. personally i wouldnt sue Nixi at this hour as they are acting as per the law of land.

 

[rodash]

I have signed Cyberking's petition (along with a huge 10 other people!) but I can't see it making any difference in this matter. I have more than 100 domains with Mitsu.in and I'm now regarding them as lost causes. I have no confidence that this matter will be resolved in the favour of domain owners. What I think will happen is that the domains will continue to be locked up by NIXI and Registry.in while this so-called dispute continues and these domains will progressively expire. (Many of mine have already expired and I'm not prepared to pay Mitsu's renewal fees because of the uncertainty as to who is controlling the domains and whether I will ever have "clear title" to them again.) At some point in the future, once the domains have been out of registration for a period of time, I believe Registry.in will claim the domains as dropped domains and reinstate them back into their registry for resale or as new registrations.

This episode has shown that the Indian domain name industry is a sham with both the authorities and registrars acting against domain owners. How could anyone trust any Indian registrar after this episode with Mitsu. How could anyone place faith in Registry.in after the way it has locked owners out of their domains while engaging in a dispute with a registrar. Registrants should be free to transfer their domains under these conditions but not only can't you transfer them but you can't change its DNS and you are unable to develop it with any certainty. The domains are worthless as things stand. Even if this situation was resolved tomorrow - which we all know it will not be - I would still bail out of all my Indian domain names and never look at .IN and .CO.IN ever again. This has proven to be a costly episode for me and I rue the day that I started regging Indian domains.

 

[Hypersot]

Can anyone recommend a registrar to transfer names to?

Godaddy / Namecheap / Crazy domains all seem very expensive for Indian domains.

Definitely Dynadot.

 

[srix]

I too got and called Mitsu support, they are surprised and will update soon on this.

 

[srix]

contacted NIXI and Registry.in. received response as below

Thank you for contacting .IN Registry Relations.

Your request is received and currently under the review. We will get back to you once any updates become available to us.

We appreciate your patience in this regard.

 

[ddesigns]

I got this mail too, is it true or fake?

 

[dnk]

Yes, whois for domain registrar changed to "Sponsoring Registrar:NIXI Holding Account (R189-AFIN)". Are domain moves or sales working for .in domain names?

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

You don't know what is happening with LLL.in dropcatching during last ~2 years???
Or what???

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

Not sure about others, but I am not familiar with any such developments. Please provide more info.

It is not about development.
It is strictly regarding dropcatching and all related things.

 

[blaal]

As per the contact information provided at [registry.in/about/contact-us-form] for NIXI, I contacted +91-1146448888 to verify this issue. NIXI confirmed that mail was genuine one. But the technical personal reluctant to give the details why they sent this mail for only Mitsu registrants.

Shifting one or two domains from Mitsu to another registrar is not a big issue. But shifting all the domains to the new registrar within 15 days is a financial burden for this NIXI act. I raised the same question, the personal who received my call asked me to forward the mail to [registrantsupport(at)registry.in] with all the concerns. So that NIXI will consider the registrants concerns. I sent my request to the nixi.

Kindly update any one has any additional info.

Thank You.

 

[domainpundit]

So if I'm reading this right Mitsu is in breach of compliance because of some bug they have not been able to sort out ?

Registry has not made any official statement on the reasons as of now. We need to wait fo find the further details.


- edited - to remove the speculation part.

 

[rodash]

Yep, my domains are showing the sponsoring registrar as "NIXI Holding Account (R189-AFIN)" in a registry.in whois lookup.
Sad really. This will be the second time I've changed Indian-based registrars.

 

[GoKaizen]

http://our.in/mitsu-registar-account-termination-nixi-communication/

 

[domainpundit]

Has anyone transferred their domains out of Mitsu recently?

I have .. follow the notes in comment section of this article - it works for you - http://our.in/mitsu-registar-account-termination-nixi-communication/

 

[domainpundit]

Mitsu.in is still sending out renewal notices, as of yesterday.

Mitsu has multiple registars in the same control panel. perhaps you are receiving the emails from the names owned at other registars.. it has registars such as business solution , in registar DBA, bharat domains..etc not all the names at Mitsu are locked.. only the names at "Mitsu Registar" are locked.. please do not ignore renewing other names, you may loose them.. check the who is details to validate who is the domain registar or alternatively contact mitsu support.

 

[crunchyg]

All other details are not for public discussion... but all experienced domainers in this niche - perfectly understand me...

I cannot comment on the specifics.

I assume this is the discussion on "other forums" people are referring to:

https://www.INF/threads/lessons-from-history-pick-your-registrar-carefully.22041/

I still don't get what's with the fucking secrecy. Our domains may end up being held hostage. If you know something that may benefit other members, say it here. This is not a good time to play mystery man.